Prime Minister John Howard has indicated that the Federal Government may move to change the Sex Discrimination Act to allow Catholic schools to discriminate in favour of men to correct a gender imbalance among teachers.

Catholic Education in New South Wales was last year denied permission by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission to offer male-only scholarships for primary school teacher training.

The Sydney Catholic Education Office wanted to lift the low number of male teachers in primary schools, a factor often blamed for poor literacy rates among boys. But it was denied permission, with the Commission ruling such a move would be in breach of the Act.

Mr Howard last night described the situation as "odd", and indicated the Government might change the Act if a legal challenge to the ruling was unsuccessful.

"The Sex Discrimination Act, in my mind, was never intended to stop that happening," he said. "It's about preventing women being discriminated against, and we're all in favour of laws that do that.

"Perhaps that underlines a flaw in the legislation. But anyway we'll see what comes out of it."